1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academys corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, the roster of the Academys approximately 6,000 motion picture professionals is a closely guarded secret. While the great majority of its members are based in the United States, the Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The Oscars. The Academy plans to open the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2017, the notion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences began with Louis B. He said he wanted to create an organization that would mediate labor disputes without unions and he met with actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo, and the head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Fred Beetsonto to discuss these matters. The idea of this elite club having a banquet was discussed. They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry, actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts, everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy. Several organizational meetings were held prior to the first official meeting held on May 6,1927 and their first organizational meeting was held on May 11. At that meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as the first president of the Academy, while Fred Niblo was the first vice-president and that night, the Academy also bestowed its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison. Initially, the Academy was broken down into five groups, or branches. The original five were, Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, the initial concerns of the group had to do with labor. However, as went on, the organization moved further away from involvement in labor-management arbitrations and negotiations. By July 1928 the board of directors had approved a list of 12 awards to be presented, during July the voting system for the Awards was established, and the nomination and selection process began. This award of merit for distinctive achievement is what we know now as the Academy Award, the initial location of the organization was 6912 Hollywood Boulevard. In May 1928, the Academy authorized the construction of a state of the art screening room, the screening room was not completed until April 1929. With the publication of Report on Incandescent Illumination in 1928, the Academy began a history of publishing books to assist its members. Another early initiative concerned training Army Signal Corps officers, in 1929 Academy members in a joint venture with the University of Southern California created Americas first film school to further the art and science of moving pictures
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1st Academy Awards
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AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show. Tickets cost $5,270 people attended the event and the ceremony lasted fifteen minutes. Awards were created by Louis B, Mayer, founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not to be broadcast either on radio or television, during the ceremony, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards in twelve categories. Winners were announced three months before the live event, some nominations were announced without reference to a specific film, such as for Ralph Hammeras and Nugent Slaughter, who received nominations in the now defunct category of Engineering Effects. Unlike later ceremonies, an actor or director could be awarded for works within a calendar year. Emil Jannings, for example, was given the Best Actor award for his work in both The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command, moreover, Charlie Chaplin and Warner Brothers each received an Honorary Award. Major winners at the ceremony included 7th Heaven and Sunrise, which received three awards, and Wings, receiving two awards. Among its honors, Sunrise won the award for Unique and Artistic Picture and these two categories at the time were seen as equally the top award of the night intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior film making. The next year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was established by Louis B. Mayer, originator of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would be joined into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, mayers purpose in creating the award was to unite the five branches of the film industry, including actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. Mayer commented on the creation of the awards I found that the best way to handle was to hang medals all over them, if I got them cups and awards theyd kill them to produce what I wanted. Thats why the Academy Award was created, Mayer asked Cedric Gibbons, art director of MGM, to design an Academy Award trophy. Nominees were notified through a telegram in February 1928, in August 1928, Mayer contacted the Academy Central Board of Judges to decide winners. The ceremony was held on May 16,1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, located in Los Angeles and it consisted of a private dinner with thirty-six banquet tables, where 270 people attended and tickets cost five dollars. Actors and actresses arrived at the hotel in luxury vehicles, where many attended to encourage celebrities. The ceremony was not broadcast on radio or television, and was hosted by AMPAS director Fairbanks, winners were announced three months before the ceremony. Three categories were eliminated for subsequent presentations, Best Engineering Effects, Best Title Writing, the larger film producers received the preponderance of awards, Fox Films Corporation, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Radio-Keith-Orpheum and Warner Brothers Production
4.
Blade Runner 2049
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Blade Runner 2049 is an upcoming American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. The film is set for release in the United States on October 6,2017, in 2D, 3D, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, discovers a dark secret that might bring an end to humanity. Ks discovery leads him to find Rick Deckard, a former runner who disappeared thirty years ago. Stuart Hazeldine had written a sequel to the film based on The Edge of Human, titled Blade Runner Down, however, Ridley Scott considered developing a sequel, tentatively titled Metropolis, and again announced his interest in developing the project while attending the San Diego Comic Con. Eagle Eye co-writer Travis Wright worked with producer Bud Yorkin for several years on the project, in June 2009, The New York Times reported that Scott, along with his brother Tony Scott, were working on a Blade Runner prequel, set in 2019. The prequel, Purefold, was planned as a series of 5–10 minute shorts, aimed first at the web, due to rights issues the proposed series was not to be linked too closely to the characters or events of the 1982 film. On February 7,2010, it was announced production on Purefold had ceased. On March 4,2011, io9 reported that Yorkin was developing a new Blade Runner film and it was also reported that month that director Christopher Nolan was the desired choice to make the film. It was announced on August 18,2011, that Scott was to be at the helm of a new installment, indications from producer Andrew A. Kosove were that Ford was unlikely to be involved in the project. Scott later said that the film was liable to be a sequel but without the previous cast, to be clear, what we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story. The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment, when Scott was asked about the possibility of a sequel in October 2012, he said, Its not a rumor—its happening. Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we dont know how long he can live, and thats all Im going to say at this stage. Scott said in November 2014 that he would no longer direct the film, Scott also revealed that filming would begin sometime in late 2014 or 2015, and that Fords character will only appear in the third act of the sequel. On February 26,2015, the sequel was officially confirmed, Ford was confirmed to return as Deckard, as was original writer Hampton Fancher, with the film expected to enter production in mid-2016. On April 16,2015, Ryan Gosling entered negotiations for a role, Gosling confirmed his casting in November 2015, citing the involvement of Villeneuve and Deakins as factors for his decision to join the film. On May 20, Roger Deakins was hired as director of photography, principal photography was set to begin in July, with Warner Bros. distributing the film domestically and Columbia Pictures handling international release. An official release date of January 12,2018, was announced on February 18,2016, when interviewed at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Villeneuve disclosed that the plot would include the ambiguity of whether or not Deckard is a human or a replicant. On March 31,2016, Robin Wright entered final negotiations for a role in the film, Bautista and Wright were confirmed to be joining the cast on April 4, and a filming start date of July was established
5.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
6.
Wings (1927 film)
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Wings is a 1927 American silent war film set during the First World War produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures and it stars Clara Bow, Charles Buddy Rogers, and Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper appears in a role which helped launch his career in Hollywood. The film, a romantic picture, was rewritten by scriptwriters Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton from a story by John Monk Saunders to accommodate Bow. The film was shot on location on a budget of $2 million at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Acclaimed for its prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured. It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929 and it also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects. Wings was one of the first to two men kissing, and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. The Academy Film Archive preserved Wings in 2002, Jack Powell and David Armstrong are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis. Jack fails to realize that the next door, Mary Preston, is desperately in love with him. The two young men both enlist to become pilots in the Air Service. When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him and she actually prefers David and lets him know about her feelings, but is too kindhearted to turn down Jacks affection. Jack and David are billeted together and their tent mate is Cadet White, but their acquaintance is all too brief, White is killed in an air crash the same day. Undaunted, the two men endure a rigorous training period, where they go from being enemies to best friends, upon graduating, they are shipped off to France to fight the Germans. Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver and she later learns of Jacks reputation as the ace known as The Shooting Star and encounters him while on leave in Paris. She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her, the climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. David is shot down and presumed dead, however, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend and he is successful in downing the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory. The owner of the land where Davids aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the mans side
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David O. Selznick
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David O. Selznick was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, David Selznick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence Anna and silent movie producer and distributor Lewis J. Selznick. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants and he had four siblings and his dad was born in Kyiv in 1870. Selznick added the O to distinguish himself from an uncle with the same name and he studied at Columbia University in New York City and worked as an apprentice for his father until the elders bankruptcy in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to Hollywood, and with the help of his fathers connections and he left MGM for Paramount Pictures in 1928, where he worked until 1931, when he joined RKO as Head of Production. David Selznicks years at RKO were fruitful, and he worked on films, including A Bill of Divorcement. Rockabye, Bird of Paradise, Our Betters, and King Kong, while at RKO, he also gave George Cukor his directing break. In 1933 he returned to MGM where his father-in-law, Louis B, mayer established a second prestige production unit for David, parallel to that of powerful Irving Thalberg, who was in poor health. Selznicks unit output included the all star cast movie Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, despite his output of successful movies at MGM, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures, Selznick longed to be an independent producer with his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by leasing RKO Culver City Studios & back lot, formed Selznick International Pictures, Gone with the Wind won eight Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award that same year, in 1940 he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner in a row, Rebecca, the first Hollywood production for British director Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the directors American career, Rebecca was Hitchcocks only film to win Best Picture. After Rebecca, Selznick closed Selznick International Pictures and took time off. His business activities included the loan of his artists to other studios, including Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh. In 1944, he formed The Selznick Studio and returned to producing pictures with the huge success Since You Went Away and he followed that with the Hitchcock films Spellbound and The Paradine Case, as well as Portrait of Jennie, a vehicle for Jennifer Jones. He also developed projects and sold the packages to other producers. Among the movies that he developed but then sold was Hitchcocks Notorious, in 1949 he co-produced the Carol Reed picture The Third Man with Alexander Korda. Gone with the Wind overshadowed the rest of Selznicks career, later, he was convinced that he had wasted his life trying to out do it
8.
RKO Radio Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
9.
Willis H. O'Brien
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Willis OBrien was born in Oakland, California. During this time he competed in rodeos and developed an interest in dinosaurs while working as a guide to palaeontologists in Crater Lake region. During this time he became a professional boxer, winning his first nine bouts. During this time he made models, including a dinosaur and a caveman, San Francisco exhibitor Herman Wobber saw this 90-second test footage and commissioned OBrien to make his first film, The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, A Prehistoric Tragedy for a budget of $5,000. Thomas Edison was impressed by the film and OBrien was hired by the Edison Company to animate a series of films with a prehistoric theme. These films led to a commission from Herbert M. Dawley to write, direct, co-star and produce the effects for another film, The Ghost of Slumber Mountain. The film however did help to secure his position on Harry O. Hoyts The Lost World, the models contained a bladder inside the skeleton model that could be inflated and deflated to give the illusion of breathing. The couple had divorced by 1930 and the two remained with their mother, who had begun to show unbalanced behaviour. By 1931 Hazel had been diagnosed with cancer and tuberculosis, while William also contracted tuberculosis resulting in blindness in one eye, the studios head of production, Merian C. OBrien and the models he had created for the cancelled project were put to work on what was to become his best remembered film. The success of King Kong led to the studio commissioning a hurried sequel Son of Kong, with a limited budget and a short production schedule OBrien chose to leave the animation work to his assistant and asked the studio not to credit him on the project. A few weeks after this visit OBriens ex-wife, Hazel Ruth Collette, shot and killed William, the suicide attempt failed and by draining her tubercular lung actually extended her life by another year. A publicity photo of OBrien taken around this time shows the anguish on his face, Hazel Ruth Collette remained in the Los Angeles General Hospital prison ward until her death in 1934. On November 17 that same year OBrien married his second wife Darlyne Prenett with whom he would remain until his death. OBrien continued to work with Merian C. Cooper at RKO on a number of projects including the epic The Last Days of Pompeii and Dancing Pirate, which was OBriens first Technicolor production. The film Mighty Joe Young, on which OBrien is credited as Technical Creator, credit for the award went to the films producers, RKO Productions, but OBrien was also awarded a statue. OBriens protege, Ray Harryhausen, worked alongside OBrien on this film, OBrien worked with Harryhausen one last time on the acclaimed dinosaur sequence for Irwin Allens nature documentary The Animal World. OBrien also worked with Peterson again on The Black Scorpion and Behemoth, the Sea Monster, but the two subsequently struggled to find work
10.
King Kong (1933 film)
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King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code monster adventure film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was from an idea conceived by Cooper and it stars Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong, and opened in New York City on March 2,1933, to rave reviews. It has been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time, the film tells of a gigantic, prehistoric, island-dwelling ape called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. King Kong is especially noted for its stop-motion animation by Willis OBrien, in 1991 it was deemed culturally, historically and aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It has been remade twice, in 1976 and 2005, while a reboot, Kong, due to set sail that night, Denham searches the streets of New York for a suitable woman. He meets penniless Ann Darrow and convinces her to him for what he proposes as the adventure of a lifetime. The Venture quickly gets underway and, during the voyage, the surly first mate, Jack Driscoll, after weeks of secrecy, Denham finally tells Englehorn and Driscoll that their destination is Skull Island, an uncharted land shown on a map in Denhams possession. Denham also cryptically alludes to some monstrous creature rumored to dwell on the island, when they find the island and anchor offshore, they see a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous ancient stone wall. A landing party, including the crew and Ann, witnesses a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young maiden as the bride of Kong. The intruders are spotted and the native chief angrily stops the ceremony, when he sees the blonde Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the golden woman. They rebuff him and return to the Venture and that night, a band of natives kidnap Ann from the ship and lead her through a huge wooden gate in the wall. Tied to an altar, she is offered to Kong, who turns out to be an enormous gorilla-like ape, Kong carries her off into the jungle as the Venture crew, alerted to Anns abduction, arrive. They open the gate and Denham, Driscoll and some enter the jungle in hopes of rescuing Ann. They soon discover that Kong is far from the giant prehistoric creature on the island when they are charged by a Stegosaurus. After constructing a raft in order to cross a swamp, a Brontosaurus capsizes their supplies, fleeing through the jungle, they soon encounter Kong, who tries to stop them from crossing a ravine by shaking them off a fallen tree that bridges it. Only Driscoll and Denham, on sides, survive. A Tyrannosaurus threatens Ann, but Kong kills it after a colossal battle, Driscoll continues to shadow Kong and Ann while Denham returns to the village for more ammunition. Upon arriving in Kongs lair in a cave, Ann is menaced by a snake-like Elasmosaurus
11.
Spawn of the North
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Spawn of the North is a 1938 film about rival fishermen in Alaska starring George Raft and featuring Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, and John Barrymore. The movie was directed by Henry Hathaway, Jim Kimmerlee owns a salmon cannery. He is pleased to see old friend Tyler Dawson, who has been away hunting seal, also glad to see Tyler is his sweetheart, hotel owner Nicky Duval. Thieves have been stealing from fishing traps, Jim is determined to put a stop to it, engaging in a feud with Red Skain, a Russian fisherman who is suspected in the thefts. Di Turlon comes back to town several years of big-city life. The adjustment to the community is awkward at first, but Di comes around. As he and others go after Red and the thieves, Jim is dismayed to learn that Tyler has become one of Reds accomplices. Planning to catch the fish poachers in the act, Jim tries to spare Tyler by having Nicky sabotage his boat, Jim exchanges gunfire with the thieves, killing two and wounding Tyler. After being found and helped by his friend after Red has abandoned him, close to death, he takes a boat back out, confronts Red, then blows a loud boat whistle that causes an avalanche, resulting in both mens death. Jim speaks admiringly of his friends sacrificial act, sparks Michio Ito as Indian Dancer Stanley Andrews as Partridge Richard Ung as Tom The film was a big box office success and was later remade as Alaska Seas. The special effects and production team who worked on Spawn of the North received an Academy Honorary Award at the 11th Academy Awards for their efforts, mills, Louis H. Mesenkop and Walter Oberst. Spawn of the North at the American Film Institute Catalog Spawn of the North at the Internet Movie Database
12.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine OHara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, the Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the year, Walt Disney Studios began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burtons thoughts regularly returned to the project, production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney released the film through the Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film would be too dark, the film was met with both critical and financial success, grossing over $76 million during its initial run. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Halloween Town is a fantasy world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, zombies, mummies, vampires, werewolves and witches. Jack Skellington, a skeleton with the title of Pumpkin King, however, Jack reveals he has grown weary of the same routine year after year, and wants something new. Wandering dejectedly in the woods, he stumbles across seven trees containing doors leading to towns representing various holidays, impressed by the bright and cheery feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his understanding of Christmas, to the Halloween Town residents. However, they fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything to their ideas of Halloween, Jack is dismayed that no one understands the feeling of Christmas, and obsessively studies the holiday but fails to find any further explanation of it. He ultimately decides that its unfair for Christmas Town alone to enjoy the feeling and announces that he, Jacks obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Sandy Claws. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman. However, after a vision of a burning Christmas tree, she realizes that his plans to run Christmas will become disastrous. Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous trick-or-treating children, to abduct Santa, against Jacks wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio delivers Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman, who plots to play a game with Santas life at stake. Christmas Eve arrives and after Sallys attempts to stop Jack fail, Jack departs in a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Jack begins to deliver presents to children around the world, after the residents complain to the police about his presents, Jack is eventually shot down by the military and crash-lands in a cemetery unharmed. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he regains his old spirit. Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie, Jack slips into the lair, frees them, and confronts Oogie. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, and Santa assures Jack that he can fix things, the townspeople of Halloween Town celebrate Jacks return, and snow falls over Halloween Town, a sign of reconciliation between Santa and Jack
13.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy neo-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. The film is based on Gary K. Wolfs 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit, the film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in Hollywood during the late 1940s in a timeline where animated characters really exist. The story follows Eddie Valiant, a detective who must exonerate Toon Roger Rabbit. Walt Disney Pictures purchased the rights for Who Framed Roger Rabbits story in 1981. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg, and his production company, Zemeckis was brought on to direct the film, and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams, while filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected. Disney released the film through its Touchstone Pictures division on June 22,1988, to critical and commercial success, the film brought a renewed interest in the Golden Age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 1947, toons act out theatrical cartoon shorts as with films, they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor acting performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit. After watching Jessica perform at the underground Ink & Paint Club, Valiant secretly takes photographs of her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, Maroon suggests to Roger that he should leave Jessica, but a drunken Roger refuses and flees. The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory by the Los Angeles Police Department with a safe dropped on his head, and evidence points to Roger being responsible. While investigating, Valiant meets Judge Doom, Toontowns Superior Court judge, who has created a substance capable of killing a toon, a toxic Dip made of turpentine, acetone, and benzene. Valiant runs into Rogers toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acmes missing will and he then finds Roger hiding in his office, who begs him to help exonerate him. Valiant reluctantly hides Roger in a bar where his ex-girlfriend, Dolores. Later, Jessica approaches Valiant and says that Maroon had forced her to pose for the photographs so that he could blackmail Acme, Doom and his toon-weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Valiant escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic taxicab. They flee to a theater, where Valiant explains to Roger that a toon killed Teddy before he fled to Toontown
14.
Range voting
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Range voting or score voting is a voting method for single-seat elections, in which voters give each candidate a score, the scores are added, and the candidate with the highest total is elected. It has been described by other names including the point system, ratings summation, 0-99 voting, average voting. It is a type of cardinal voting method, a crude form of range voting was apparently used in some elections in Ancient Sparta, by measuring how loudly the crowd shouted for different candidates. This has an analog of using clapometers in some television shows. Sports such as gymnastics rate competitors on a scale, although the fact that judges ratings are public makes it less likely for them to engage in blatant tactical voting. A multi-winner variant, re-weighted range voting, is used to select the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Range voting uses a ratings ballot, that is, each voter rates each candidate with a number within a specified range, in the simplest system, all candidates must be rated. The scores for each candidate are then summed, and the candidate with the highest sum is the winner, some systems allow voters to explicitly abstain from rating certain candidates, as opposed to implicitly giving the lowest number of points to unrated candidates. In this case, a score would be the average rating from voters who did rate this candidate. However, some method must then be used to exclude candidates who received too few votes, in some competitions subject to judges scores, a truncated mean is used to remove extreme scores. Another method of counting ratings ballots is to find the score of each candidate. This method is referred to as Majority Judgment. It could have the effect of reducing the incentive to exaggerate, a potential disadvantage is that multiway exact ties for winner may become common, although a method exists in Majority Judgment to break such ties. In conventional range voting, these ties would be extremely rare, another consequence of using medians is that adding an all-zero ballot can alter the election winner, which is arguably a disadvantage. The claimed advantages are a disincentive against strategic exaggeration, and a majority winner between the top two, Range voting in which only two different votes may be submitted is equivalent to approval voting. As with approval voting, range voters must weigh the impact on their favorite candidate of ranking other candidates highly. Imagine that Tennessee is having an election on the location of its capital, the population of Tennessee is concentrated around its four major cities, which are spread throughout the state. For this example, suppose that the entire lives in these four cities
15.
George Pal
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George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the science-fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe and he was nominated for Academy Awards for seven consecutive years and received an honorary award in 1944. This makes him the second-most nominated Hungarian exile after Miklós Rózsa and he was born in Cegléd, Austria–Hungary, the son of György Pál Marczincsak, Sr. and his wife Maria. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928, from 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary. At the age of 23 in 1931, he married Elisabeth Zsoka Grandjean, during this time, he patented the Pal-Doll technique. In 1933, he worked in Prague, in 1934, he made an advertisement in his hotel room in Paris. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery and he left Germany as the Nazis came to power. He made five films before 1939 for the British company Horlicks Malted Milk, in December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States, and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship, Pal then switched to live-action film-making with The Great Rupert. He himself directed Tom Thumb, The Time Machine, and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California, of an attack at the age of 72. The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. In 1980, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded the George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film series in his memory, Pals Puppetoons Tulips Shall Grow and John Henry and the Inky-Poo were added to the Library of Congress 1997 and 2015 National Film Registry. One of the Tubby the Tuba models along with a frog, the Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pals films, including Jasper and the Beanstalk, John Henry and the Inky Poo, and Radio Röhren Revolution. Lao The Power Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze, after Worlds Collide Odd John Logans Run When the Sleeper Wakes War of the Worlds Unfinished TV pilot Doc Savage, The Arch Enemy of Evil The Time Traveller aka Time Machine II. A novelization with Joe Morhaim was published posthumously in 1981, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Disappearance Voyage of the Berg The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal The Puppetoon Movie Gail Morgan Hickman. The Films of George Pal ISBN 0-498-01960-8, mars in the Movies, A History. Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company,2016
16.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
17.
James Cameron
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James Francis Jim Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found success with the science fiction action film The Terminator. He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens and he found further critical acclaim for his use of special effects in Terminator 2, Judgment Day. After his film True Lies Cameron took on his biggest film at the time, Titanic, despite Avatar being his only movie made to date in 3D, Cameron is the most successful 3D film-maker in terms of box-office revenue. In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System, described by a biographer as part scientist and part artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26,2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench and he is the first person to do this in a solo descent, and is only the third person to do so ever. In total, Camerons directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America, not adjusted for inflation, Camerons Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion respectively. Cameron also holds the achievement of having directed two of the three films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide, in March 2011, he was named Hollywoods top earner by Vanity Fair, with estimated 2010 earnings of $257 million. Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley, an artist and nurse, and Phillip Cameron and his paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, and attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls and his family moved to Brea, California in 1971, when Cameron was 17 years old. He dropped out of Sonora High School, then attended Brea Olinda High School to further his secondary education, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a two-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester, next, he worked several jobs, including as a truck driver, writing when he had time. That way I could sit down and read it, and if theyd let me photocopy it, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after seeing Star Wars in 1977. When Cameron read Syd Fields book Screenplay, it occurred to him that science and art was possible. They raised money, rented camera, lenses, film stock and they dismantled the camera to understand how to operate it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it running. He was the director, writer, producer, and production designer for Xenogenesis and he then became a production assistant on a film called Rock and Roll High School, though uncredited, in 1979. While continuing to educate himself in film-making techniques, Cameron started working as a miniature-model maker at Roger Corman Studios, making rapidly produced, low-budget productions taught Cameron to work efficiently and effectively. He soon found employment as an art director in the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenters Escape from New York, acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and consulted on the design of Android
18.
Richard Fleischer
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Richard O. Fleischer was an American film director. Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer, after graduating from Brown University, he went to Yale School of Drama, where he met his future wife, Mary Dickson. His film career began in 1942 at the RKO studio, directing shorts, documentaries, and compilations of forgotten silent features, Fleischer moved to Los Angeles and was assigned his first feature, Child of Divorce, a vehicle for Sharyn Moffett. It was successful so Fleischer was assigned to another Moffett vehicle, Banjo, RKO agreed to loan him out to Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman, who had admired Child of Divorce, to make So This Is New York for the Kramer Company at Columbia. Back at RKO Fleischer made a based on a story by Foreman. His other early films were taut film noir such as Bodyguard, Follow Me Quietly, Armored Car Robbery. Fleischer says he tried to graduate to A pictures during this time. When Norman Krasna and Jerry Wald set up at RKO, they asked Fleischer to see if he could make an out of any of the film shot for Its All True. Another project that did not come to fruition was a film starring Al Jolson, rKOs owner, Howard Hughes, was impressed by The Narrow Margin and hired Fleischer to re-shoot portions of His Kind of Woman. Hughes was pleased with the results and agreed to loan out Fleischer to Stanley Kramer to make The Happy Time, Fleischer was put under contract to the Kramer Company. The Happy Time was successful and Fleischer was meant to follow it with another for Kramer and Foreman, however the film was never made because the partnership between Foreman and Kramer ended. He accepted an offer from MGM to make Arena, a story starring Gig Young. In 1954, he was chosen by Walt Disney to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas and he was able to accept an offer to direct a thriller for Buddy Adler at 20th Century Fox, Violent Saturday. This was successful and Fox signed Fleischer to a term contract. He would work for that studio for the fifteen years. Fleischers first film under his new contract with Fox was The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and he then made Bandido, a Western with Robert Mitchum. Kirk Douglas hired Fleischer to make The Vikings, which was big hit. Back at Fox, Fleischer made Compulsion, a drama with Orson Welles for producer Richard D. Zanuck
19.
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
20.
Peter Jackson
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Sir Peter Robert Jackson ONZ KNZM is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy and he also produced District 9, The Adventures of Tintin, The Secret of the Unicorn, and the documentary West of Memphis. Jackson began his career with the horror comedy Bad Taste. He shared a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures, Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003. He has also received a Golden Globe, four Saturn Awards and his production company is Wingnut Films, and his most regular collaborators are co-writers and producers Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 and he was later knighted by Anand Satyanand, the Governor-General of New Zealand, at a ceremony in Wellington in April 2010. In December 2014, Jackson was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Jackson was born on 31 October 1961 in Wellington and was raised at the nearby coastal town of Pukerua Bay. His parents—Joan, a worker and housewife, and William Bill Jackson. Bill Jackson was a veteran of the Siege of Malta in World War II, as a child, Jackson was a keen film fan, growing up on Ray Harryhausen films, as well as finding inspiration in the television series Thunderbirds and Monty Pythons Flying Circus. After a family gave the Jacksons a Super 8 cine-camera with Peter in mind. Jackson has long cited King Kong as his film. Most notable though was a 20-minute short called The Valley, which won him a prize because of the shots he used. In school, Jackson expressed no interest in sports and his classmates also remember him wearing a duffle coat with an obsession verging on religious. He had no training in film-making, but learned about editing, special effects and make-up largely through his own trial. As a young adult, Jackson discovered the work of author J. R. R. Tolkien after watching The Lord of the Rings, when he was 16 years old, Jackson left school and began working full-time as a photo-engraver for a Wellington newspaper, The Evening Post. For the seven years he worked there, Jackson lived at home with his parents so he could save as much money as possible to spend on film equipment. After two years of work Jackson bought a 16 mm camera, and began shooting a film later became Bad Taste. Jackson has long cited several films as influences and it is well known that Jackson has a passion for King Kong, often citing it as his favourite film and as the film that inspired him early in his life
21.
Robert Zemeckis
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Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American filmmaker and screenwriter frequently credited as an innovator in visual effects. In the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994s Forrest Gump, the films he has directed have ranged across a wide variety of genres, for both adults and families. Zemeckis was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Rosa and his father was Lithuanian American and his mother was Italian. Zemeckis grew up on the side of the city. He attended a Roman Catholic grade school and Fenger Academy High School, Zemeckis has said the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, the only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was. As a child, he loved television and was fascinated by his parents 8 mm film movie camera. Starting off by filming family events like birthdays and holidays, he began producing narrative films with his friends that incorporated stop-motion work. Along with enjoying movies, Zemeckis remained an avid TV watcher and you hear so much about the problems with television, he said, but I think that it saved my life. After seeing Bonnie and Clyde with his father and being influenced by it. His parents disapproved of the idea, Zemeckis later said, But only in the sense that they were concerned, for my family and my friends and the world that I grew up in, this was the kind of dream that really was impossible. My parents would sit there and say, Dont you see where you come from and you cant be a movie director. I guess maybe some of it I felt I had to do in spite of them, Zemeckis applied only to University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts, and went into the Film School on the strength of an essay and a music video based on a Beatles song. Not having heard from the university itself, Zemeckis called and was told he had rejected because of his average grades. The director gave an impassioned plea to the official on the line, promising to go to summer school and improve his studies. Arriving at USC that fall, Zemeckis encountered a program that was, in his words, the classes were difficult, with professors constantly stressing how hard the movie business was. Zemeckis remembered not being much fazed by this, citing the healthy cynicism that had been bred into him from his Chicago upbringing, while at USC, Zemeckis developed a close friendship with the writer Bob Gale, who was also a student there. Gale later recalled, The graduate students at USC had this veneer of intellectualism. So Bob and we werent interested in the French New Wave
22.
Stanley Kubrick
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Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor, and photographer. He is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in cinematic history, Kubrick was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, and attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas, the war picture Paths of Glory and the historical epic Spartacus. His reputation as a filmmaker in Hollywood grew, and he was approached by Marlon Brando to film what would become One-Eyed Jacks, though Brando eventually decided to direct it himself. His home at Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, which he shared with his wife Christiane, became his workplace, where he did his writing, research, editing, and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete control over his films. His first British productions were two films with Peter Sellers, Lolita and Dr. Strangelove and he often asked for several dozen retakes of the same scene in a movie, which resulted in many conflicts with his casts. Despite the resulting notoriety among actors, many of Kubricks films broke new ground in cinematography, Steven Spielberg has referred to the film as his generations big bang, and it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. For the 18th-century period film Barry Lyndon, Kubrick obtained lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA, with The Shining, he became one of the first directors to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots. His last film, Eyes Wide Shut, was completed shortly before his death in 1999, Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26,1928, in the Lying-In Hospital at 307 Second Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. He was the first of two children of Jacob Leonard Kubrick, known as Jack or Jacques, and his wife Sadie Gertrude Kubrick, known as Gert and his sister, Barbara Mary Kubrick, was born in May 1934. At Stanleys birth, the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, although his parents had been married in a Jewish ceremony, Kubrick did not have a religious upbringing, and would later profess an atheistic view of the universe. By the district standards of the West Bronx, the family was fairly wealthy, soon after his sisters birth, Kubrick began schooling in Public School 3 in the Bronx, and moved to Public School 90 in June 1938. Although his IQ was discovered to be average, his attendance was poor. He displayed an interest in literature from an age, and began reading Greek and Roman myths. When Kubrick was 12, his father Jack taught him chess, the game remained a lifelong interest of Kubricks, appearing in many scenes of his films. Kubrick himself, who became a member of the United States Chess Federation, explained that chess helped him develop patience. At the age of 13, Kubricks father bought him a Graflex camera and he became friends with a neighbor, Marvin Traub, who shared his passion for photography
23.
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
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2001, A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science-fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C, Clarke, partially inspired by Clarkes short story The Sentinel. Clarke concurrently wrote the novel 2001, A Space Odyssey, published soon after the film was released, the film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer Hal after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution. It deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence and it is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery. It uses sound and minimal dialogue in place of narrative techniques, the soundtrack consists of classical music such as Gayane Ballet Suite, The Blue Danube. Production was subcontracted to Kubricks production company, and care was taken that the film would be sufficiently British to qualify for subsidy from the Eady Levy, Kubrick had shot his previous two films in England and decided to settle there permanently during filming. 2001, A Space Odyssey initially received mixed reactions from critics and audiences and it was nominated for four Academy Awards and received one for its visual effects. The sequel 2010 was released in 1984, directed by Peter Hyams, Today,2001, A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress, in 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal. In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of ape-men is driven away from their water hole by a rival tribe and they awaken to find a featureless black monolith has appeared before them. Guided in some fashion by the monolith, they learn how to use a bone as a weapon and drive their rivals away from the water hole. Millions of years later, a Pan Am space plane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd to a station orbiting Earth for a layover on his trip to Clavius Base. After Floyd has a call with his daughter, his Soviet scientist friend. At Clavius, Floyd heads a meeting of base personnel, apologizing for the cover story. His mission is to investigate a recently found artifact buried four years ago. Floyd and others ride in a Moonbus to the artifact, an identical to the one encountered by the ape-men. Sunlight strikes the monolith and a loud high-pitched radio signal is heard, eighteen months later, the United States spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. On board are mission pilots and scientists Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, most of Discoverys operations are controlled by the ships computer, HAL9000, referred to by the crew as Hal
24.
Douglas Trumbull
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Douglas Huntley Trumbull is an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. Douglas was born in Los Angeles and he is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars. Douglas Trumbulls early work was at Graphic Films in Los Angeles, the small animation and graphic arts studio produced a film called To the Moon and Beyond about spaceflight for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. Trumbull, the son of an engineer and an artist, worked at Graphic Films as an illustrator. The spaceflight film caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick, Kubrick hired director Con Pederson from Graphic Films, and Trumbull then cold-called Kubrick after obtaining the directors home phone number from Pederson. Kubrick hired Trumbull for the production of 2001, A Space Odyssey, Trumbulls first task was to create the dozens of animations seen in the data display screens in the Aries moon shuttle and the Discovery. They looked like computer graphics, but they were created by photographing and animating reproductions of charts, Trumbull initially created the shots using a number of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions he built with gears and motors ordered from a scientific equipment supply house. Kubrick gave the effects technician creative freedom and encouragement, He would say. What do you need to do it, and I would have complete carte blanche, which was wild as a young guy, Trumbull recalled. I was 23–24 when I started the movie, and was 25 by the time I was doing the Star Gate and he would say, What do you need. And Id say, Well, I need to go into town and buy some weird bearings and some stuff and he would send me off to town in his Bentley, with a driver, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We were struggling with the Star Gate, although Trumbulls association with Kubrick was a huge boost for his career, he swore afterwards that he would never work for someone else again, in part because Kubrick was a hell of a taskmaster. His level of quality-control bordered on perfectionism, Trumbull was often incorrectly credited in print as being the sole special-effects creator for 2001. Whenever this happened, he received a call shortly thereafter from an irritated Kubrick. Though this created a relationship for many years, Trumbull said after Kubricks death that Kubrick was a genius. In 1969 Trumbull was filming the annual Flying Saucer Convention in Giant Rock California and this evolved into a full length project initially called Giant Rock, Rutabaga Deluxe, and then Saturation 70, An Ecological Horror Fantasy. The star of the film was a five year old Jason Jones, some footage includes a battle with a Green Beret and a Viet Cong in a supermarket. Trumbulls partner on the film was Anthony Foutz, a company called Dimension V took over backing of the film
25.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
26.
12th Academy Awards
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The 12th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored the best in film for 1939. The ceremony was held on February 29,1940, at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and it was hosted by Bob Hope. David O. Selznicks production Gone with the Wind received the most nominations of the year with thirteen and this was the first year in which an Academy Award was awarded in the category of special effects. This was also the first time that two awards for cinematography were presented, hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to receive an Academy Award, winning in the Best Supporting Actress category for Gone with the Wind. Sidney Howard became the first posthumous winner for his screenplay for Gone with the Wind, AMPAS presented Academy Awards of Merit in twenty categories. Nominees for each award are listed below, award winners are listed first, among those who campaigned in favour of the film were Hedda Hopper who declared it as great as Lincolns Gettysburg speech, while Sheilah Graham called it the best talking picture ever made. Screen Book magazine stated that it should win every Academy Award, frank Capra, the director, and James Stewart, the films star were considered front runners to win awards. Gone with the Wind premiered in December 1939 with a Gallup poll taken shortly before its release concluding that 56.5 million people intended to see the film. The New York Film Critics Award was given to Wuthering Heights after thirteen rounds of balloting had left the voters deadlocked between Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Gone with the Wind, the press were divided in their support for the nominated actors. West Coast newspapers, particularly in Los Angeles, predicted Bette Davis would win for Dark Victory, observing that Davis had achieved four box office successes during the year, one paper wrote, Hollywood will stick by its favourite home-town girl, Bette Davis. Capra was the incumbent President of the Academy, and in a first for Academy Awards ceremonies, sold the rights for the event to be filmed. Warner Bros. obtained the rights, for $30,000 to film the banquet and the presentation of the awards, to use as a short, among these were Clark Gable and Bette Davis. Following the banquet, Capra opened proceedings at 11pm with a speech before introducing Bob Hope who made his first appearance as host of the awards. Looking at a table laden with awards awaiting presentation, he quipped, mickey Rooney presented an Academy Juvenile Award to Judy Garland, who then performed Over the Rainbow, a Best Song nominee from The Wizard of Oz. As the evening progressed, Gone with the Wind won the majority of awards, making a speech, Selznick paused to extend praise and gratitude to Olivia de Havilland, a Best Supporting Actress nominee, and made it clear in his speech he knew she had not won. Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer to win an Academy Award, de Havilland was among those to make their way to McDaniels table to offer congratulations, though it was reported de Havilland then fled to the kitchen, where she burst into tears. The press reported an irritated Irene Mayer Selznick followed her, and told her to return to their table, robert Donat, the winner for Best Actor, was one of three nominated actors not present. Accepting the award for Donat, Spencer Tracy said he was sure Donats win was welcomed by the entire motion-picture industry before presenting the Best Actress award to Vivien Leigh, the press noted Bette Davis was among those waiting to congratulate Leigh as she returned to her table
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The Rains Came
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The Rains Came is a 1939 20th Century Fox film based on an American novel by Louis Bromfield. The film was directed by Clarence Brown and stars Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, Nigel Bruce, a remake of the film was released in 1955 under the name The Rains of Ranchipur. The story centers on the redemption of its lead female character, George Brent is Tom Ransome, an artist who leads a rather dissolute if socially active life in the town of Ranchipur, India. His routine is shattered with the arrival of his former lover, Lady Edwina first sets out to seduce, then gradually falls in love with, Major Rama Safti who represents the new India. Ranchipur is devastated by an earthquake, which causes a flood, Lord Esketh dies and Lady Esketh renounces her hedonistic life in favor of helping the sick alongside Major Safti. Unfortunately, she becomes infected and dies, making it possible for Safti to become the ruler of a kingdom that he will presumably reform, in the course of the story, a missionarys daughter, Fern Simon, and Ransome also fall in love. Bannerjee Mary Nash as Miss MacDaid Jane Darwell as Aunt Phoebe - Mrs. Smiley Marjorie Rambeau as Mrs. Simon Henry Travers as Rev. Homer Smiley H. B, Warner as Maharajah Laura Hope Crews as Lily Hoggett-Egburry William Royle as Raschid Ali Khan C. Montague Shaw as General Keith The casting apparently was a lengthy process, Loy and Brown were loaned to 20th Century Fox from MGM. Brent was also on loan from his studio of Warner Bros. The only cast member who was chosen for the role he or she played was Ouspenskaya. She later claimed that she learned all she needed to know about impersonating Indian royalty from her acquaintance with the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, the film is noted for a number of unusual features. Loy and Bruce are cast against type, loys stylish bad girl role was more akin to the sort that made Greta Garbo known than her own reputation as the ideal wife which MGM promoted for many years. Best remembered are the scenes dealing with the earthquake and floods and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning in the category of Special Effects and Sound Effects, for the earthquake and flood sequences. It became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, the Rains Came was remade in 1955 as The Rains of Ranchipur, with Richard Burton, Lana Turner and Fred MacMurray in the Power, Loy and Brent roles. The 1939 film uses the novels ending, the 1955 film does not. Sources, Film commentary on the DVD The Rains Came The Rains Came, A Novel Of Modern India
